U.S. wants to deploy missile-armed Marines along Japan's Okinawa islands -Yomiuri (updated)

NVE

10/01/2023 03:04

(Adds detail)
       TOKYO, Jan 10 (Reuters) - 
    The United States wants to disperse U.S. Marine units
throughout Japan's Okinawa islands by 2026, arming them with
missiles and lighter gear to deter China's military, and will
discuss the plan with Tokyo in Washington, D.C., the Yomiuri
newspaper said.
  
        The U.S. has already told Japan about the
reorganisation, which it will announce after a two-plus-two
meeting in Washington on Wednesday between Japan's ministers of
defence and foreign affairs and their U.S. counterparts, the
paper reported.
  
        Officials at Japan's defence ministry were unavailable
for comment. A foreign ministry official declined to comment
about the report, but said Japan and the U.S. "will discuss
matters regarding issues on the U.S. Forces Japan, including the
realignment of the U.S. Forces Japan".
  
        The creation of the new units, called Marine Littoral
Regiments, is part of a major reorganisation of the U.S. Marine
Corps outlined by its commandant, General David Berger, in 2020
in his Force Design 2030 paper.
  
        At the time Berger told Reuters he wanted those units to
work closely with Japan's Self Defense Forces to prevent easy
access to the Pacific for China’s military. 
  
        As part of that plan, the Marines are cutting aircraft
numbers, and dumping most of their cannon artillery and heavy
armour in favour of smaller "dispersed" forces equipped with
missiles and drones that can operate in contested areas.
  
        Japan hosts 18,000 U.S. Marines, the biggest
concentration outside the United States. Most of them are in
bases on the main Okinawan island, which is part of a chain that
stretches along the edge of the East China Sea to within about
100 km (62 miles) of Taiwan.
  
        That large U.S. military presence has fuelled local
resentment, with Okinawa's government asking other parts of
Japan host some of the force. Although reorganisation may not
increase the number of Marines in Okinawa, dispersing them could
mean a broader presence along the island chain.
  
 (Reporting by Tim Kelly and Mariko Katsumura; Editing by Gerry
Doyle)
 ((Mariko.Katsumura@thomsonreuters.com;))